Before a milling machine operation is performed, a lathe cutter must be properly positioned relative to a work piece held in the lathe spindle axis. If the lathe cutter and the work piece are not properly positioned then the milling machine operation results are unpredictable. However, the ‘teeth’ of a lathe spindle when completely closed still leave a space between ‘teeth’ so a user can't very easily adjust a lathe cutter to the exact center of the spindle.
A common way of getting around this problem is to produce a nub in a sacrificial work piece and then center the lathe cutter to a center of the nub but that is a time consuming and iterative process and sacrifices work material. Also, manually determining an exact center of the work piece nub can be problematic and error prone. Furthermore, this calibration-like procedure must be redone every time the lathe bed is otherwise adjusted for slant lathe bed operations.
There is a long felt need in the milling machine market for a simple and reliable lathe cutter height gauge which allows repetitious and consistent placement of a lathe cutter to a work piece along the longitudinal axis in relation a cutting tool. Machinists have long needed such a gauge which allows the work piece to be accurately and safely machined on all surfaces exposed to the cutting tool.